DU'er usonian posted this a couple days ago.

[yonder]

I'm reposting to give it a little more visibility. I cannot get it out my head, especially the last of the key points listed:

• AI subtly erodes our cognitive strength by making delegation seem like self-generated thought.
• After repeatedly turning to AI for answers, the first thing that erodes is tolerance for not knowing.
• True judgment is built by wrestling with uncertainty, not outsourcing discomfort to machines.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221279398

For years now, I've been comparing the way knowledge and retention was gained in my youth to the way it's often learned now. Long ago, it took some effort whereas today, a few keystrokes will take one to some sort of unvetted answer. Then next week, next month, next year we find ourselves asking the same question - because it's easy and memory is cheap.

I'd say the easy way out is too often the easy way in . . . to a trap.

Anyhow, the article at the link is a quick, worthwhile read and hats off to usonian for the OP.

[pat_k]

1. Kick 'n' rec! (This and usonian's OP)

[2naSalit]

2. And there's this...

Silicon Valley is engineering your phone, apps and social media to get you hooked, says a former Google product manager

[yonder]

9. The cortisol spike associated with social media stimulus was interesting.

I'd guess it would be common with stimuli in most animals but just seems so unnatural when attributed to our new overlords.

[anciano]

3. AI technology is the new reality of our modern world.....

when used appropriately and responsibly, I have found AI to be an efficient and effective tool for obtaining information, evaluating ideas, and enhancing creativity.

[yonder]

7. I don't necessarily disagree though

responsibility, usefulness and progress seems to have become inversely proportionate to potential profit making.

[anciano]

8. An understandable concern....

AI has many different applications now being used other than genAI and some form of AI is now affecting almost everyone's life in some way, whether they are even aware of it or not.

[yellow dahlia]

4. Thanks for reposting - I missed it the first time.

And thanks for your own analysis and impressions - I agree.

If we change the process of our interaction with knowledge and research, we may lose the art of critical thinking.

[usonian]

5. Wow, thanks for posting this.

Someone posted this on Hacker News, a forum for techies and V.C.'s

In the thread, "Apple's Plan for AI Dominance Rests on Fixing Its Much-Maligned Chatbot"

I view and use computers as tools. They (mostly) do what I command.

That's because I am by nature a problem solver, and so are others. In fact, if knowledge consists of understanding a particular domain, and wisdom consists of applying knowledge across different domains, creativity of a sort, one of them being that unknown called the future then "button pusher" answers kill my ability to deal with future situations which are not recorded in "The Book of Common Knowledge" (a SNL reference).

When "computers" wrestle control of the situation and solve everything, then, as someone said in the early 20th century "Everything that can be invented has already been invented" then there's now no need for computers at all, since "Every problem can be solved by a chatbot" and no need for creative (genius) things like the famous "Wordless Workshop" that ran in Popular Science and Family Handyman magazines.

Just answer machines. No need to learn anything, nor to create.

Creativity and genius move us forward. That's why we have Hacker News as opposed to those "answer forums"

I managed a group of techies, where one guy would look for the 'button-pusher" answer. He'd partition a disk where the partitions overlapped, causing disaster. I had to redo his work from scratch, "by the numbers". And learning is a step by step, "get the basics right" process, one that I emphasized.

You can often solve a tough problem by going back to basics or first principles. (yes, I got a physics degree long time ago) Shortcuts do not help you with the next problem and the next. Sitting near the computer is the little neon-bulb thing that tells me that an electrical line is dead or alive before I go play with it, and during my distinguished service as an Electrician's Mate Third Class --- as Herbert T. Gillis would say "WITH the good conduct medal" --- I also learned to apply electrical tape to the associated circuit breaker so that nobody could accidentally reset it. Some levers on breakers have little drill-throughs into which you can insert a wire tag.

[yellow dahlia]

10. Thanks for the additional "notes".

[malaise]

6. K & R n/t